Research Catalogue

A moving image essay in three parts.

HEIMILDALEIKSÝNINGIN: FÚSI, ALDUR OG FYRRI STÖRF. UM VERKIÐ: Fúsi, aldur og fyrri störf er heimildaleiksýning um Sigfús Sveinbjörn Svanbergsson. Verkið var frumsýnt 17. nóvember á Litla sviði Borgarleikhússins og var sýnt frá haustinu 2023 til vorsins 2025. Í sýningunni fer Fúsi yfir ævi sína og valin atriði úr fjölbreyttu lífi hans eru færð í leik- og söngbúning með aðstoð leikara og söngvara. Verkið fór í leikferð til Leikfélags Akureyrar og var sýnt á 80 ára afmæli Leikfélags Sólheima á Sólheimum í Grímsnesi. Fúsi er húmoristi, fótboltaáhugamaður, leikari, söngvari og lífskúnstner sem minnir okkur á að lífið er alltaf þess virði að lifa því þó að stundum sverfi að. Hindranirnar í lífi Fúsa hafa eflt hann og hvatt hann til að lifa lífinu til hins ítrasta með fötlun sinni og njóta hvers einasta dags. Stundum er lífsreynsla þó þess eðlis að aldrei verður fyllilega hægt að komast yfir hana, sama hversu jákvæður og sterkur einstaklingur er. Sýningin byggir á viðtölum við Fúsa, sem Agnar Jón Egilsson frændi hans og leikstjóri sýningarinnar tók við hann á meðan covid faraldrinum stóð. Tilurð sýningarinnar er því samband frændanna Fúsa og Agga og samverustundir þeirra. Í samstarfi við sviðslistaframleiðandann Monochorme og MurMur Productions LEIKARAR: Sigfús Sveinbjörn Svanbergsson, Agnar Jón Egilsson, Vala Kristín Eyríksdóttir, Þórunn Arna Krjistjánsdóttir, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Bergur Þór Ingólfsson og Egill Andrason. Leikstjóri: Agnar Jón Egilsson Höfundar: Agnar Jón Egilsson og Sigfús Sveinbjörn Svanbergsson Leikmynd og búningar: Svanhvít Thea Árnadóttir Aðstoðarleikstjóri: Ástbjörg Rut Jónsdóttir Tónlistarmaður. Egill Andrason Aðstoð við söng: Gísli Magna Framkvæmdastjórn: Davíð Freyr Þórunnarson fyrir MUR MUR Production. Tilnenefningar og verðlaun: Sýningin fékk Múrbrjótinn, viðurkenningu Landssamtakanna Þroskahjálpar árið 2024. Múrbrjóturinn er veittur þeim sem þykja hafa skarað framúr í að ryðja fötluðum nýjar brautir í átt til jafnréttis. Í rökstuðningi kom fram að verkið hlyti m.a. viðurkenninguna á forsendum þess að í Fúsi, aldur og fyrri störf sé skrifað og leikið af leikara með þroskahömlun og að það sé í fyrsta skipti sem slíkt gerist í atvinnuleikhúsi á Íslandi. Fúsi, aldur og fyrri störf fékk einnig hvatringarverðlaun ÖBÍ árið 2024. Hvatningarverðlaunin eru veitt þeim sem hafa með verkum sínum stuðlað að einu samfélagi fyrir alla og endurspegla nútímalegar áherslur um þátttöku, sjálfstæði og jafnrétti fatlaðs fólks. Fúsi, aldur og fyrri störf hlaut tvö Grímuverðlaun árið 2024, leikstjóra ársins og Sprotann (hvatnigarverðlaun Grímunnar). En sýninginn fékk samtals fjórar tilnefningar til Grímunnar 2024, fyrrnefndar tvær ásamt Sýningu ársins og Leikara ársins í aukahlutverki (Agnar Jón).

This exposition gathers all the essential information needed to get started with the Research Catalogue (RC) platform at the Iceland University of the Arts (IUA). It offers a clear overview of how to create a profile, start an exposition, and navigate the basic functions of the platform. The goal is to provide staff with a central reference point for working with RC in the context of artistic research and institutional use.

In this study I elaborate on how Charms unfolds as a plastic experimentation rooted in an initial vision of the body. It is grounded in a reimagined body image, constructed from other imagined bodies, such as the anatomical flayed figure and protective devices. This study explores the notion of the body turned upside down —both literally and conceptually — reconfigured through an armor-like structure in which flesh paradoxically assumes the role of an external layer. The resulting image is of a body that is both armored and exposed, charged with contradictions that disrupt binary oppositions such as inside/outside, alive/dead, human/animal, and powerful/fragile. This hyperbolic Charms, constructed from two distinct costumes, is offered for visual contemplation, recurring within contemporary visual culture as a manifestation of the scientific body still subjected by imagination and visceral sensation. The work, a multichannel video installation, also investigates the body’s capacity to generate imaginaries through movement, employing measurement tools from the biomechanics research laboratory to visualize this dynamic relationship.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we, in our role as lecturers, conducted hybrid workshops with design and art students from ten partner institutions on five continents. Our goal was to explore soundscapes from different viewpoints, and we were deeply impressed by the outcome. The recordings and their accompanying images and conversations dissolved geographical borders along with social, cultural, and structural differences. Following Hartmut Rosa, we understand this atmosphere of connection produced between the participants and the soundscapes themselves to be a resonance space, which only became explicit to us after some time had passed. In this article, we re-interpret this space through personal recollections and theoretical positions, and claim that such a collaboration holds pedagogical and artistic implications for future teaching and creative practice. These include not only the impact upon technology in the classroom, temporal perception, inter-relationality, and care practices, but also the artistic benefits of opening up spaces of resonance as a means of engaging with the challenge of intercultural communication and witnessing in our global world.

In the globalising world, our cultural influences have become more diversified than ever. At the same time, the code of good conduct on honouring intercultural sources of inspiration is still being written in the collective consciences of artists and audiences alike. The current mindset is being explored in an artistic research project, of which the concert this article focuses on was a component. “Approcreations”, an experimental solo concert, was atypical in terms of the conventions of the instruments played. The recital trialled the public’s receptiveness by developing pioneering uses for a tradition-oozing instrument while casting thoughts into the perception of artistic identity in the crossfire of preconceptions, aftermaths of colonialism and cultural appropriation disputes. Would the public’s sentiments differ from the performer’s expectations? The author, having developed a time-tested perspective after decades of international touring as a non-African player of the Mande diatonic balafon, now zeroes in on the factors influencing how we interpret and feel about culturally complex art practices. Sociocultural and symbolic connotations of musical instruments are analysed in light of the affordance theory, and the instruments’ evolution from cultural assets into universal vehicles for human creativity is pondered upon. Video samples from the concert stage concretise words into sounds and colours. The outcome of this artistic component is then inquired based on both self-reflection and audience feedback. Finally, as the controversy around cultural appropriation vs. inspiration extends beyond music to encompass a broader range of performing arts, the conclusion seeks to identify tendencies in the findings that might benefit art practitioners in other genres as well.